An angry President Obama on Tuesday lashed out at Republicans, and particularly Donald Trump, who have called him soft on terrorism, warning that "loose talk" about Muslims has harmed the United States' campaign against militant groups in the Middle East and elsewhere.
Obama challenged the demand by his critics that he characterize acts of terrorism, including the mass shooting in Orlando, as the work of "radical Islam" -- a phrase the president has refused to use because he believes it unfairly implicates an entire religious group for the acts of militant extremists.
A day earlier, Trump used the phrase to question Obama's commitment to stopping terrorist acts, including the Orlando shooting, by saying the president refuses to define the enemy.
“That’s the key, they tell us. We can’t get ISIL unless we call them ‘radical Islamists,'" Obama said, referring to the Islamic State militant group after meeting with his National Security Council at the Treasury Department to discuss the administration's counter-terrorism strategy. "What exactly would using this label accomplish? What exactly would it change? Would it make ISIL less committed to trying to kill Americans? Would it bring in more allies? Is there a military strategy that is served by this? The answer is, none of the above. Calling a threat by a different name does not make it go away. This is a political distraction.”
"We are now seeing how dangerous this kind of mind set and this kind of thinking can be. We are starting to see where this kind of rhetoric and loose talk and sloppiness about who exactly we are fighting, where this can lead us," Obama said. Trump "singles out immigrants and suggests entire religious communities are complacent in violence. Where does this stop?"
The slaying of 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando on Sunday by a shooter who purportedly was inspired by the Islamic State has quickly become a political flashpoint in the 2016 campaign. The massacre represented the worst mass-shooting in U.S. history and has thrust issues of terrorism, gun control and national security to the forefront of the nation's political debate just as the campaign has begun to shift into a general election matchup between Trump and presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
Clinton, the former secretary of state, said Monday that she was not afraid to use the phrase "radical Islam," but she did not fault Obama for not using it and she said the actions to fight terrorism was more important than the rhetoric.
Obama emphasized that Omar Mateen, the alleged Orlando gunman, was born in the United States, as were the perpetrators in mass shootings in San Bernardino, Calif., in December and at the Fort Hood military installation in Texas in 2009.
As he has in the past, the president warned that using inflamed rhetoric about Muslims and the Islamic faith threatens to play into the motives of terrorist groups that use propaganda to portray a U.S. war against Islam and recruit new members.
'That's not the America we want," Obama said. "It does not reflect our Democratic ideals. It won't make us more safe, it will make us less safe, fueling ISIL's notion that the West hates Muslims, making Muslims in this country and around the world feel like, no matter what they do, they're going to be under suspicion and under attack."
The president added that such rhetoric "betrays the very values America stands for.We have gone through moments in our history before when we acted out of fear, and we came to regret it. We have seen our government mistreat our fellow citizens, and it has been a shameful part of our history."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news..._hp-top-table-main_obama-115pm:homepage/story
Obama challenged the demand by his critics that he characterize acts of terrorism, including the mass shooting in Orlando, as the work of "radical Islam" -- a phrase the president has refused to use because he believes it unfairly implicates an entire religious group for the acts of militant extremists.
A day earlier, Trump used the phrase to question Obama's commitment to stopping terrorist acts, including the Orlando shooting, by saying the president refuses to define the enemy.
“That’s the key, they tell us. We can’t get ISIL unless we call them ‘radical Islamists,'" Obama said, referring to the Islamic State militant group after meeting with his National Security Council at the Treasury Department to discuss the administration's counter-terrorism strategy. "What exactly would using this label accomplish? What exactly would it change? Would it make ISIL less committed to trying to kill Americans? Would it bring in more allies? Is there a military strategy that is served by this? The answer is, none of the above. Calling a threat by a different name does not make it go away. This is a political distraction.”
The remarks were Obama's most forceful rebuttal to Trump since the real estate mogul became the presumptive GOP presidential nominee. Though he did not mention Trump by name, Obama lambasted his proposals to ban all Muslims from immigrating to the United States and challenged Republican leaders to reject his demagoguery.
"We are now seeing how dangerous this kind of mind set and this kind of thinking can be. We are starting to see where this kind of rhetoric and loose talk and sloppiness about who exactly we are fighting, where this can lead us," Obama said. Trump "singles out immigrants and suggests entire religious communities are complacent in violence. Where does this stop?"
The slaying of 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando on Sunday by a shooter who purportedly was inspired by the Islamic State has quickly become a political flashpoint in the 2016 campaign. The massacre represented the worst mass-shooting in U.S. history and has thrust issues of terrorism, gun control and national security to the forefront of the nation's political debate just as the campaign has begun to shift into a general election matchup between Trump and presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
Clinton, the former secretary of state, said Monday that she was not afraid to use the phrase "radical Islam," but she did not fault Obama for not using it and she said the actions to fight terrorism was more important than the rhetoric.
Obama emphasized that Omar Mateen, the alleged Orlando gunman, was born in the United States, as were the perpetrators in mass shootings in San Bernardino, Calif., in December and at the Fort Hood military installation in Texas in 2009.
As he has in the past, the president warned that using inflamed rhetoric about Muslims and the Islamic faith threatens to play into the motives of terrorist groups that use propaganda to portray a U.S. war against Islam and recruit new members.
'That's not the America we want," Obama said. "It does not reflect our Democratic ideals. It won't make us more safe, it will make us less safe, fueling ISIL's notion that the West hates Muslims, making Muslims in this country and around the world feel like, no matter what they do, they're going to be under suspicion and under attack."
The president added that such rhetoric "betrays the very values America stands for.We have gone through moments in our history before when we acted out of fear, and we came to regret it. We have seen our government mistreat our fellow citizens, and it has been a shameful part of our history."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news..._hp-top-table-main_obama-115pm:homepage/story
